The present invention relates to a device for fitting electric wires with bushings or sleeves comprising a base module for supporting a sleeve module and a fitting module, wherein the sleeve module feeds to the fitting module the sleeves in the correct orientation for fitting and the fitting module fits the wire with the sleeves.
European patent specification EP 0 626 738 B1 shows a device for fitting sleeves onto electric wires. With such devices, sleeves which are needed, for example, for the moisture proof passage of electric wires through the walls of housings of electrical apparatus, can be pushed onto the wires in an efficient manner. The device consists of a drum that can be filled with sleeves and is open on one end-face and which can be driven about an axis that runs at an angle to the horizontal. While the drum rotates, sweepers arranged inside the drum pass to a feeder rail projecting into the drum sleeves for the purpose of buffering and further conveyance with correct orientation. An ejector device with a centering spindle that can be moved up and down feeds the first sleeve in the feeder rail of a rotating device which has several spindles and can be rotated further in stepwise manner by a certain angle, in a first position of the rotating device one sleeve is pushed onto the tip of a spindle. In a second position of the rotating device, for the purpose of its expansion the sleeve is pushed by means of a pushing unit onto a part of the spindle. In a further position of the rotating device, by means of a fitting head with sleeve receptacle and sleeve expander the sleeve is pulled off the spindle and the sleeve in expanded state is pushed onto the wire.
A disadvantage of this known device is that, when retooling the device from one sort of sleeve to another sort of sleeve, many sleeve-specific machine parts or tools must be exchanged, which causes long changeover times.